In MEF's powerful new release, The Bro Code, filmmaker Thomas Keith takes aim at the forces in male culture that condition boys and men to dehumanize and disrespect women. Keith breaks down a range of contemporary media forms that are saturated with sexism -- movies and music videos that glamorize misogyny; pornography that trades in the brutalization of women; comedy routines that make fun of sexual assault; and a slate of men's magazines and cable TV shows whose sole purpose is to revel in reactionary myths of American manhood. The message he uncovers in virtually every corner of our entertainment culture is clear: It's not only normal -- but cool -- for boys and men to control and humiliate women. By showing how there's nothing natural or inevitable about this mentality, and by setting it against the terrible reality of men's violence against women in the real world, The Bro Code challenges young people to step up and fight back against the idea that being a real man means disrespecting women.

1 min ·
Written and directed by MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally, The Codes of Gender applies the late sociologist Erving Goffman's groundbreaking analysis of advertising to the contemporary commercial landscape, showing how one of American popular culture's most influential forms...

4 min ·
The first part of this clip gets into the sexism and rape culture around advertising, but what really illustrates the point clearly is the last half.
They use men instead of women in the same ads. The effect is dramatic, and in some cases, totally absurd.

5 min ·
Despite the achievements of the women's movement over the past four decades, misogyny remains a persistent force in American culture. In this important documentary, Thomas Keith, professor of philosophy at California State University-Long Beach, looks specifically at...

6 min ·
Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish one of the central tenets of our political culture, the idea of the "liberal media." Instead, utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to...

5 min ·
George Gerbner clearly and comprehensively outlines the way in which the universal story-telling function of human societies has been colonized by corporate media. Making a distinction between "effect" and his own theory of "cultivation," he explains the role the media...

6 min ·
We've been told again and again that sports and politics don't mix, that games are just games and athletes should just "shut up and play." But according to Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin, this notion is just flat-out wrong. In Not Just a Game, the powerful new...

75 min ·
Examines the diversity of human sexual and gender variance around the globe, with commentary by scientific experts and first-hand accounts of people who do not conform to a simple male/female binary.

66 min ·
A note from Films For Action
For the next month, the film-makers who created Schooling The World have generously made their film available to us in the spirit of the Gift.
Instead of setting a price and transacting before you’ve seen the film, they are turning the tables...

Chris Hedges ·
The Trouble With Chris Christie
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_trouble_with_chris_christie_20140112/
Posted on Jan 13, 2014
By Chris Hedges
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been Wall Street’s anointed son for the presidency. He is backed by the most ruthless...

45 min ·
What does it feel like to be a woman on the street in a cultural environment that does nothing to discourage men from heckling, following, touching or disparaging women in public spaces?
Filmmaker Maggie Hadleigh-West believes that the streets are a War Zone for women...

105 min ·
The Internet’s Own Boy follows the story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz's help in the development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit, his fingerprints are all over the internet. But it was Swartz's...

15 min ·
Wendell Potter apologizes to Michael Moore for the role he played in the insurance industry's public relations attack campaign against him and "Sicko", Moore's documentary about the increasingly unfair and dysfunctional U.S. health care system.

19 min ·
Jackson Katz, Phd, is an anti-sexist activist and expert on violence, media and masculinities. An author, filmmaker, educator and social theorist, Katz has worked in gender violence prevention work with diverse groups of men and boys in sports culture and the military, and...

30 min ·
A half-hour special presentation of a bold new vision for community media. Combining archival footage with interviews and b-roll, Opening Access presents a compelling picture of an emerging model for alternative media that will engage new communities and new voices.

10 min ·
Want to have a pervasive effect on the subconscious attitudes of our culture? Get into the entertainment business.
This is a clip from the amazing film Miss Representation: http://www.missrepresentation.org/

7 min ·
Jackson Katz argues that widespread violence in American society, including the tragic school shootings in Littleton, Colorado, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and elsewhere, needs to be understood as part of an ongoing crisis in masculinity. Tough Guise is the first educational video...

53 min ·
From bomb threats sent to campaigners for more females on banknotes to sexually explicit pop videos. From extreme laddism at universities to rape jokes in the school yard... Kirsty Wark explores whether there's a new culture abroad in which it's acceptable to write about...

Don't miss out on our best content! Once a week (no more, we promise) you will receive an email containing only the best videos and articles that were added to the site that week. We hand-pick the content so that you only get the very best!